The Live United Texarkana Bowl was an American

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is the intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environment ...

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

held at Razorback Stadium in

Texarkana, Arkansas Texarkana is a city in the U.S. state of Arkansas and the county seat of Miller County, on the southwest border of the state. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 29,387. It is the twin city of Texarkana, Texas, located just acros ...

. The game was established in 2013 and played annually through 2023 with the exception of 2020, when it was cancelled due to the

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. From 2020 to 2023 the title sponsor was Farmers Bank & Trust. In each of its ten seasons, the game's selection committee extended an invitation to the highest-standing team from the

Great American Conference The Great American Conference (GAC) is a List of NCAA conferences, college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the NCAA Division II, Division II level, with headquarters located in Russellvil ...

(GAC) which did not qualify for the NCAA Division II Football Championship playoffs. Initially, the opponent was an at-large team selected from either the

Lone Star Conference The Lone Star Conference (LSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the South Central states, with schools in Texas ...

(LSC) or the

Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Its fourteen me ...

(MIAA). Starting in 2017, when teams from the GAC, MIAA, and LSC also became eligible for bids to the

Heritage Bowl The Heritage Bowl was an NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) bowl game held by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The bowl pitted a team from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) against a team from the South ...

(played in

Corsicana, Texas Corsicana is a city in and the county seat of Navarro County, Texas, United States. It is located on Interstate 45, 50 miles southeast of Dallas, Texas, Dallas. Its population was 25,109 at the 2020 census. Corsicana is considered an important ...

), the Texarkana game became a GAC-MIAA matchup. At the time of its demise, the Live United Bowl was the oldest of four Division II sanctioned bowl games. The others were the Heritage Bowl,

America's Crossroads Bowl The America's Crossroads Bowl is an annual American NCAA Division II college football bowl game held at Brickyard Stadium in Hobart, Indiana. The game operates as a partnership between the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC), the Great Midwes ...

, and

Florida Beach Bowl The Florida Beach Bowl was an American college football bowl game contested between NCAA Division II teams from the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) and Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC), two athletic confere ...

. The game raised between $10,000 and $15,000 annually for the

United Way United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit organization, nonprofit fundraising affiliates. Prior to 2015, United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public. Individual Un ...

of Greater Texarkana. It also generated an estimated $500,000 per year for the local economy. Despite these successes, on July 2, 2024, Texarkana (Arkansas) mayor Allen Brown announced that the game was being "retired" after a run of ten seasons. Brown, who also served as bowl president, called it "disappointing" that the game was "not really supported by our local community." He noted that "sponsorships have declined" while "expenses have continued to increase."

Game results

Wins by conference

Appearances by team

References

External links

* {{NCAA Division II bowl game navbox American football in Arkansas College football bowls Texarkana, Arkansas

Bowl A bowl is a typically round dish or container generally used for preparing, serving, storing, or consuming food. The interior of a bowl is characteristically shaped like a spherical cap, with the edges and the bottom, forming a seamless curve ...

Great American Conference